Jon surprised me by booking a "seal swim" for me where I actually got to get in their habitat tank and swim with them for a bit. There were a couple of seals in the tank with us; the biggest was Groucho who was MASSIVE. Thankfully, he kept his two ton self towards the bottom of the tank showing off for the people watching from the Underwater Viewing area. He was HUGE! Baby Oscar was adorable and very friendly. I even got to play tug of war with Bella & her rope toy the same way I do with my puppy, Bailey. However, Bella is much stronger than Bailey and gave me a couple tugs that sent me flying! It was such a great experience & I can't wait until Jon & I get to go play with the seals together!
Underwater World was an amazing place. They have this incredibly exhibit called "Monsters of the Deep" with specimens of all of the pelagic fish that look incredibly alien-like. They even have on display the only giant squid that was ever found in one piece. It's in block of ice almost 4 meters long and its tenticles are wrapped back over it's head to fit it in the ice. The eeriest part was this black & white eye that was a large as a dinner plate!
Another really cool exhibit that they have is meant to teach people all about the mermaid's purses that they find on the beach. You've seen them, those little black pouches with stringy legs on all four corners. They are actually the enclosures for shark embryos until they reach gestation. The exhibit created a glass mermaid's purse that actually contained live, growing shark embryos that the facility is hand raising. It was absolutely amazing to see. The little guy was moving around and you could see his umbilical cord and sac bit that he was getting nourishment from. Absolutely wild.
Just for the kitsch factor, they have this "aquarium" inside a Honda SUV that is pretty cool. "A Fish Called Honda," it was named. It was just pretty neat to look at.
On the lowest level, there is a moving walkway that snakes through 80 meters of a tube running below the main aquarium, filled with sharks and fish of all varities. Now, I tend to visit aquariums where ever I travel to see all of the different displays, but this was by far one of the most magnificent "large tank displays" I have ever seen.
Overall, it was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to go back with Jon. I saw specimens of fish that I never knew existed and literally made my eyes pop out of my head. Some of them are so gorgeous, or just so different that it takes your breath away for a second. And best of all there were otters, which were super cool, but smell super bad.
It was really great to spend the afternoon just acting like a little kid again.
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